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Where to vote By Embarcadero Media staff
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egistered voters in San Mateo County can bring their completed ballots to any of the 39 drop box locations. Outside drop boxes are available at any time until the close of voting at 8 p.m. on Election Day. Those placed inside buildings are open during the building’s business hours. For nearby locations, go to The Almanac’s online story at tinyurl.com/ sm-co-ballots. A total of 45 in-person vote centers throughout the county will be open from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. All vote centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3. Atherton’s will be located at El Camino Hall at Menlo College, 1000 El Camino Real. Menlo Park will have three in-person vote centers: Arrillaga Family Recreation Center, Sequoia Room, 700 Alma St.; Onetta Harris Community Center, Multipurpose Room, 100 Terminal Ave.; and the Residence Inn, Menlo Atherton Room, 555
Glenwood Ave. Woodside’s will be at Woodside Village Church, 3154 Woodside Road, and Portola Valley’s will be at Portola Valley Town Center, Community Hall, 765 Portola Road. The San Mateo County Elections Office will also be providing curbside ballot drop-off at all 45 vote centers on Election Day, allowing voters to safely deliver their ballots without leaving their vehicles. The county elections office announced Wednesday that the county’s event center in San Mateo would serve as a “super vote center” due to its large facilities and acres of parking. It plans to set up 20 voting booths 6 feet apart inside Sequoia Hall via the west parking lot entrance on Delaware Avenue, according to a press release. The event center will also have drive-thru voting, where elections staff will bring people a vote-by-mail ballot. New this election, the county has also deployed a mobile vote center targeting urban areas with low eligible voter registration as well as rural areas
Olivia Treynor
Aurelie Harou casts her ballot in the official drop box outside of Menlo Park City Hall on Oct. 27.
affected by the recent CZU wildfires. The mobile vote center will move from Pescadero High School to the Hillsdale Shopping Center from Oct. 30 through Election Day. Pop-up
vote centers will also be held at East Palo Alto Academy Nov. 2-3 and at the La Honda Fire Brigade on Election Day. Anyone voting in person in San Mateo County will be asked
to wear a face covering, maintain at least 6 feet of physical distance from others and use hand sanitizer before and after See VOTE, page 17
Menlo Park council race: Tensions grow over residential rezoning Two would-be competitors sought campaign promises from candidate Wolosin By Kate Bradshaw Almanac Staff Writer
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ith days to go until Election Day, Menlo Park’s District 3 race continues to generate controversy. This year, the only contested City Council seat up for election is in District 3, which includes the neighborhoods of Vintage Oaks, Felton Gables, Linfield Oaks, part of the Caltrain line and a small square of Menlo Park west of El Camino Real bordered by Santa Cruz Avenue, Valparaiso Avenue and Crane Street. The three candidates running for the seat are Jen Wolosin, a bike and pedestrian
safety advocate and parent; Max Fennell, a professional triathlete and coffee entrepreneur; and Chelsea Nguyen, a project manager at Cisco, veteran and single mother. Whoever is elected will participate in leading the city’s update to its housing element, a process that will require the city to comply with a state mandate requiring cities to adjust its zoning rules to allow for its “fair share” of new housing to meet the region’s growth. The latest projections from the Association of Bay Area Governments indicate Menlo Park could be on the hook to zone for 3,075 new housing units, 1,218 of which would be required
for low- or very low-income households. One of the key issues that at least some district residents say is Jen Wolosin shaping their decision is opposition to statements Wolosin has made about being open to considering changing zoning in single-family residential areas to permit duplexes or triplexes. Although Wolosin has been the most vocal about her openness to evaluating single-family zoning to permit denser housing, both Nguyen and Fennell told The Almanac they are also
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supportive of the idea. In an email, Nguyen said she supported rezoning singlefamily homes to permit multiple houses — but with a significant caveat. She said she would only favor doing so, “if the fence height limit is changed as well, at least up to 30 feet to protect privacy for the neighboring houses.” Fennell, in an email, said he also supported rezoning. “I think rezoning for duplexes or triplexes is important in helping to address the housing crisis right now,” he said. Campaign promises?
residents in particular are advocating against Wolosin’s campaign based on the single-family rezoning question. Both also tried to extract promises from Wolosin and were turned down, asking for a vote for a Planning Commission seat and to rule out rezoning in single-family housing areas. Stu Soffer and Marc Bryman each told The Almanac they had considered running for the council seat, but decided against it. Soffer is an expert witness in intellectual property matters who writes the “Deep Menlo” blog on The Almanac website, and Bryman is a
Two prominent District 3
FALL REAL ESTATE
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See COUNCIL RACE, page 14